Guide and Resources

Academic Integrity

Last updated on: September 11, 2025

Filter tags:

This guide will provide information and resources on best practices and tips to avoid an academic integrity violation in your class.

What is Academic Integrity

Students are expected to act with honesty and integrity while carrying out academic assignments, according to the ASU Student Academic Integrity Policy. Academic integrity violations fall into five broad categories:

Cheating on an academic evaluation or assignment
Plagiarism
Academic deceit, such as fabricating data, information or documentation
Aiding others in committing integrity violations and inappropriately collaborating
Falsifying academic records

Best Practices to Avoid Academic Dishonesty

There are many strategies you can implement into your course to help avoid academic dishonesty taking place in your course. One of the first things instructors should do is create a classroom culture that values academic integrity and directly address this topic with your students each semester. This lets students know that it is important to you, the course and ASU.

Syllabus

Incorporating verbiage in your syllabus with regard to academic integrity is important. Be sure to incorporate verbiage from the ASU Student Honor Code in your syllabus. In this SOLS/TLC Syllabus Template you can find options to set the tone and clarify expectations of academic integrity in your course.

Course Materials

Creating effective course materials that are appropriate, relevant and well-aligned to course outcomes will ensure that students are less likely to seek and misuse external sources.

Course Tools

At ASU, there is an abundance of technologies that can deter cheating and promote academic integrity. These tools include proctoring tools, plagiarism detection software and annotation tools. Certain Canvas quiz settings can further reduce opportunities for dishonest practices.

You can find more Canvas resources in the TLC Toolkit - Canvas Training and Basics.

Assessments

Assessments that are well-designed and thoughtful can make it more difficult for students to cheat. You can significantly decrease the likelihood of cheating by creating assessments that are iterative, scaffolded with other assignments, require logic and justification, include factual data, are specific to the individual, include a peer review or group work and are randomized or varied. Requiring a discussion or presentation can also reduce instances of cheating. Some things to consider when creating assessments include:

Timed Exams-Having timed exams creates an environment where students need to be adequately prepared in advance of the exam in order to successfully answer the questions and complete the exam in the time frame allowed.
High-stakes assessments - Giving one or two assessments a lot of weight in a student’s overall course grade can create an environment where there is a lot of pressure to do well in order to receive a high mark in the class. This can then lead to a student making a different decision on an assessment than they might otherwise have, since it has such a large impact on their academic career.
Variety of assessments - Instead of having a smaller number of more heavily weighted exams, consider a variety of assessments that allows the student to showcase their understanding of the topic more broadly and lessens the pressure of the impact of high-stakes tests.
Question types - When creating assessments, use a variety of question types that asks the students about the materials in different ways to get a more broad evaluation of their knowledge and reduce the temptation to share or memorize a series of answer choices.

Course Expectations

Making sure your assignments have clear instructions and explicit standards will help students understand what’s expected of them. When students understand what is expected and know what success looks like, they are less likely to resort to cheating.

Investigating Academic Dishonesty

If you believe one of your students has violated the academic integrity of your course, follow the steps for investigating and reporting in this guide: Academic Integrity: Reporting Violations